Call on Johore voters to show that they have more stamina and perseverance to fight kleptocracy than Najib in his defence of kleptocracy and 1MDB scandal

I am worried about the voter turn-out in the Johore state general election on March 12, 2022 and would call on the voters of Johore not to fall into Najib Razak’s trap of not voting and let UMNO to win a landslide victory in Johore which will be a stepping-stone for Najib to return as 10th or 11th Malaysian Prime Minister in the 15th national General Election.

Najib is campaigning as the real leader of UMNO and Barisan Nasional and to return as the 10th or 11th Prime Minister of Malaysia by using the Johore state general election as a testing ground for his popularity.

Najib believes that the Malays support his “Apa Malunna BOSSku” campaign.

A renowned Islamic scholar, who was Rector of the International Islamic University of Malaysia, Kamal Hassan, has written a new book on “Corruption and Hypocrisy in Malay-Muslim Politics – The Urgency of Moral-Ethical Transformation” where he said he was “disgusted, appalled and sickened” by corruption and hypocrisy of Malay and Muslim political leaders.

The voting results of the Johore state general election on March 12, 2022 will provide an answer whether Najib is right that he has the support of the Malay community in his “Malu Apanya BOSSku” campaign.

But Najib wants not only the Malay but the non-Malay community to support his “Malu apanya BOSSku” campaign.

For this Najib has devised a two-prong strategy.

Firstly, he has launched the “Malu Apanya BOSSku campaign” in Johor to save the MCA in Johore. By launching the campaign of “shamelessness”, where a person need not feel shame or regret at the billion-ringgit 1MDB scandal, Najib is in fact saying that a Minister or political leader who exhibit such traits of “shamelessness” is not wrong or need to be ashamed. This is most shocking and must be condemned by all right-thinking Malaysians who want leaders to be moral guardians in our society.

The second prong of Najib’s strategy is to have a low-turnout of voters who are appalled or incensed by corruption and the 1MDB scandal. If there is a low voter turnout of voters who might vote against kleptocracy, it fits into Najib’s agenda to return as the 10th or 11th Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Many voters are disinclined to vote as they believe that the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government was a failure or a disaster. They are wrong, for they have not taken into account the fact that in a country which practises parliamentary democracy, democratic change, it takes decades and more than one general election to reverse the half-a-century of national declines, where we have lost out to one country after another, starting with Taiwan then South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam.

A start has been made by the Pakatan Harapan government after the 14th General Eletion on May 9, 2018 to bring about national and institutional changes in Malaysia. But before such national and institutional changes can take effect and strike deeper roots, the five-year mandate of Pakatan Harapan government was toppled in 22 months undemocratically and unconstitutionally.

These are the people who Najib hope will be so disenchanted and lack the stamina to continue to vote against corruption, kleptocracy and abuses of power in the Johore state general election – while Najib has the stamina, perseverance and shamelessness to fight on in his campaign of “Apa Malunya BOSSku”.

We must continue to fight for national and institutional changes in Malaysia, to return to the fundamental nation-building principles as laid down out the Malaysian Constitution and Rukun Negara – a constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, doctrine of separation of powers, the rule of law, good governance, respect for human rights, integrity and morality, acceptance that Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural plural society where its citizens, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Dayarks or Orang Asli, are equal citizens.

Malaysia does not want Najib to come back to create more 1MDB scandals. We must have the grit and stamina to continue to struggle to make Malaysia a world-class great nation by reversing the half-a-century of national decline and the increasing corruption and hypocrisy in Malaysian politics, as pointed out by[LKS1] Kamal Hassan in his new book.

We must show that ordinary Malaysians have more stamina and perseverance in fighting kleptocracy than Najib in his stamina and perseverance in defending kleptocracy and the 1MDB scandal.